2025 PDC WC Friday Preview

James Punt was at it again on Thursday. Four winners from five bets and he is looking for more tody. You can check out his 2025 PDC WC Friday preview and tips below.

Stephen Burton vs. Alexander Merkx

I have to admit to never having seen Merkx throwing a dart. He qualified via the Challenge Tour OOM, where he is in fourth place. He has averaged 87.66 in the last three months and won eight of his last ten matches, but all at WDF level. Merkx has not had may invites to the Players Championship events but when he has played in them, he lost five of his six matches.

Stephen Burton is the more experienced of the two players. He has played here before, back in 2019, when he lost his first round match 0-3 to Ryan Searle. He hasn’t had a lot of success since regaining his tour card, outside of making a Players Championship semi-final in September.

Burton beat Dirk van Duijvenbode, Rob Cross and Damon Heta to get there and more recently, he knocked James Wade out of the Players Championship finals in the first round. He has lost six of his last ten matches and hasn’t been doing anything special.

Burton is the 1.57 favourite, Merkx 2.63, but this is a match that is easily passed over.

2025 PDC WC Friday Tip: No bet

Wessell Nijman vs. Cameron Carolissen

Carolissen wins the prize for being the biggest outsider of the first round. He is 34.00…in a two horse race. The South African has played here before, and he reached the second round, but only because his first round opponent was ruled out by covid.

He did take a set off Danny Noppert in the second round. Carolissen was runner up in the first African Continental Tour Final last month but qualified at the African Qualifier. He is not the worst player in the tournament, but it is the quality of his opponent which is his problem.

It is very hard to oppose Nijman and this is not a betting opportunity. No bet.

2025 PDC WC Friday Tip: No Bet

Ian White vs. Sandro Eric Sosing

White is the 1.20 favourite in an afternoon session very light on competitive matches. He has won just four of his last ten and is playing with no consistency. He has hit three ton plus averages, but his last match saw a 76 average and a 0-6 loss to Mike De Decker in the Players Championship. That came the day after he beat MVG 6-1 in the first round, averaging 102.69.

Sandro Eric Sosing makes his second appearance at Ally Pally. He was here last year when he averaged just 76 in a 0-3 loss to Lee Evans. He was runner up in the Asian Championship to Lourence Ilagan but that was enough for him to make a return. His seasonal average is 82.83 and he shouldn’t be bothering In White, unless White has one of his horror matches.

White has played in twelve World Championships and won five of his opening matches, four of them 3-1. I can see something similar.

2025 PDC WC Friday Tip: 1 point Ian White to win 3-1 @ 3.40 with Fitzdares

Stephen Bunting vs. Kai Gotthardt

Bunting is in good form. He comes here after finishing the Pro Tour season in great nick. He had a run of three consecutive finals in three days at the start of October. He lost all three, but it was still a good run. The Bullet also lost another final, PC29, at the end of October.

However, he was not able to transfer that sort of form to the TV stage. He lost in the first round of the Grand Prix. That was to Humphries, but it was still a loss. He lost in the first round of the European Championship. That was to Gary Anderson, but it wasn’t a great performance from Bunting, averaging 92.16.

Bunting made it through the group stage of the Grand Slam, hit three ton plus averages, but lost in the second round, again to Gary Anderson. He then lost 4-6 to Mario Vandenbogaerde in the first round of the Players Championship finals.

That will have been very disappointing for Bunting, who is trying to stake a claim to get picked for the Premier League. Bunting has won six of his last ten matches. He has played nine PDC World Championships and won five of his opening matches.

Nice Winner

Kai Gotthardt was a nice winner for us on Monday when he beat Alan Soutar 3-1. That was just as I suffered a power cut and missed the entire match. I gather that Soutar was as poor as expected. Certainly, Gotthard’s 89.10 wasn’t great.

The German has won eleven of his last twelve matches, but all but Monday’s win were in the European Super League, which he won as a qualifier for the World Championships. In only two of those twelve matches did Gotthard average above 90, and only just with a 90 and a 92. Clearly, he will need to step up a couple of gears here if he is to get anything out of the match.

Bunting is the 1.18 favourite and he has got a good draw with Gotthardt. If you bought a ticket for this session, hard luck. It is rare to get four such one sided matches, even at this stage of the season. No bet.

2025 PDC WC Friday Tip: No Bet

-JamesPunt